The past two years have shown us lots of things happening in the Mac world that most of us may never have expected to see. For instance, raise your hand if, two years ago, you could have foreseen Apple releasing a consumer system that would become the best-selling home computer in the retail market. Hmm, not many hands out there. See what we mean? The production and success of the iMac is the big one, but we've had lots of surprises along the way-- not the least of which is that not only is Apple still afloat today, but it's also growing and thriving. Sure, there's plenty of work still left to do, but the sheer volume of progress made in the past twenty-four months has been staggering.

For those of you whose hearts are a little shaky around stunning news, you might want to sit down for this one... You probably had some palpitations when Apple actually started showing television commercials (and good ones) again beginning with the award-winning but abstract "Think Different" ad. But what would happen if third parties, such as Apple's resellers, actually started spending their own money on advertising Apple's wares? We're thinking our hearts would go into infarction, or arrest, or possibly they'd just plain explode. After all, you've all seen just how much marketing muscle the likes of CompUSA and Best Buy throw behind selling Macs, right? We're lucky if Macs get even a sixth of a page buried in the middle of the Sunday circular.

So what's being reported over at Apple Insider has Apple-watching hearts exploding all over the place, coating the world in a sticky goo of disbelief and anticipation. (Eeeyyeww. Nothing gets that stuff out of upholstery.) Basically, it's rumored that Sears, the latest addition to the stable of national iMac resellers, actually plans to air their own commercials, paid for with their own money, pushing iMacs. Keep an eye peeled for the ads to air later this month, as Sears prepares to roll out the fruit-flavored systems in time for Memorial Day weekend. Wow, someone else paying to advertise Apple computers... What's next, Macs making inroads back into the enterprise market? (Check back in two years.)